


A Truly fantastic/terrifying Dance Lesson

by RoyalMileven



Series: You are my hero, Dad. [3]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Dance lesson, El wants to be a ballerina, F/M, Hop in a pink skirt, Jopper kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-24
Updated: 2018-07-24
Packaged: 2019-06-15 17:43:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15418203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoyalMileven/pseuds/RoyalMileven
Summary: After seeing a ballet performance at the theatre, El convince Hop she wants to be a ballerina. And well, the dance lesson is great for her, but not for him. Because he was forced to dance too.





	A Truly fantastic/terrifying Dance Lesson

The day El wanted to dance ballet was a usual day, but still, it got Hopper unarmed. She was seven, all excited when he took her to the theatre after the New Year. "El Hopper, the ballerina." she sang to herself, excitedly jumping in her seat. She was already dressed in the clothes for the dance lessons and they were heading to Joyce's.

As he stopped his truck on the driveway, his little daughter jumped out of the car, leaving the door open. Hopper sighed, closing it behind her before he got out too and followed her. El already stood by the door, knocking. After a few seconds, Joyce appeared in the doorway, raising her eyebrows. "Hiya, Ellie! Look at you, you look adorable!"

Joyce grinned at her, praising the dance outfit which she bought for her (Hopper wanted to give her sweatpants and T-shirt, what an idiot). El turned around, playing with her pink fluffy skirt before she yelled, obviously seeing her friends inside and running to the boys. Hopper sighed but smiled at the sight. "Hey, Hop." Joyce chuckled.

"Hey, Joyce." he grinned at her before he hugged her, kissing the top of her head. They became close - most part thanks to their kids who decided to be besties (El and Will decided to be siblings, but it was their secret mission how to get their parents together). They sat at their usual spot in the living room and Joyce handed Hopper his mug of coffee.

"So you are having every Tuesday off now?" she asked him curiously.

Hopper nodded, drinking his coffee. "Yep. El and I had decided that Tuesday will be our day. You know, all the stuff she wants to, we'll do. Like Ahoy icecream, the damn new mall in Hawkins, watching movies and stuff. And her dance lessons, obviously." he muttered.

"That sounds fun," she chuckled. "I'm glad you're spending the day with her. So, I was wondering, I'm making dinner on Saturday, do you wanna come?"

"Sure. El loves your food. So do I." Jim smiled at her. She hit him in the chest but laughed shortly. "I don't cook that well, but thank you."

After twenty minutes of talking and drinking coffee, El came to the living room with his watch on her wrist, frowning. "Come on, dad! We have to go!" she groaned, rolling her brown eyes. Joyce chuckled while Hopper rolled his eyes at her too, standing up. "Alright."

"Oh, and can we take Dustin home on our way? He has a visit at the doctor's." his daughter asked, innocently blinking. Jim sighed but nodded. She grinned at him before she yelled "Dustin!". A curly head brunette boy walked out of Will's room, heading to the living room. Chief frowned at his baseball hat. He was wearing it all the time.

"Hey, Hop! How are you?" Dustin immediately smiled. A few of his teeth (more like all of them) were missing. "Hey, Dusty. And great, I guess. You?"

"Cool! We were just playing D&D, but due to El's lessons, we'll have to move it on Sunday. We can't miss the Mage, the most powerful creature in the universe."

Hopper rolled his eyes once more, waving at Joyce who was amused by the trio. The two seven years old followed him into the truck. They were talking loudly. Hop was really happy that El at least talked with her friends (much more than he expected), but the boys were so loud. 

Stopping at Henderson's house, Mrs. Henderson was already waiting in front of the house. She held a brown cat in her arms, rocking her from one side to another. Dustin grinned and waved at Chief, getting out of the car. El waved at him back. Claudia stopped at the car and smiled at the Hoppers. "Hey, Chief. And hello, Ellie. Thanks for bringing him home, I would be worried if it wasn't you."

"No problem, Claudia. Well, I guess see you at the parent-teacher meeting." he smiled. "Of course, Jim. I'll go now, bye Ellie!"

"Bye, Mrs. Henderson! Bye Chews!"

After another ten minutes of driving, they finally arrived in Salem, the neighboring town where her lessons should be. Jim hoped that El will maybe find girl-friends there who could teach her the girly things. The lessons were at the sports center, on the second floor. There was a whole dance hall with mirrors on one of the wall, and with a big chandelier on the ceiling.

Their teacher was an energetic, young blonde woman taller than him. "I guess this is El, right?" she grinned and bent down so they could shake their hands. El nodded, smiling. "I'm Danielle Griffin, but you can call me Dani. I told all the girls too."

Hopper grinned and the teacher looked at him again. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Hopper. I see El's already dressed, she can go to the girls. But you aren't dressed..."

"Why should I be dressed?" he raised his eyebrows in shock.

The teacher sighed. "The parents dance along with their kids. Haven't you read the paper? Oh, nevermind. We still need a man's arms. And I'm sure we can find some, um, bigger skirt." she smiled at him. Hopper panicked. He started shaking his head and moving his arms in disagreement, but Dani was strong. She took his elbow and literally dragged him into the dressing room.

"We once had a dancing man, too. In a performance. We still have the great pink skirt, I think it'll be your size," Dani exclaimed, handing him the piece of long fluffy pink skirt, just like his daughter's. "Do I really need to?" he sighed, looking at it.

"Yes, you do." she nodded. Hopper rolled his eyes and put the skirt on. After seeing himself in the mirror, he almost jumped in horror. How the hell is he gonna survive that? A long time later, he stepped into the dance hall in black leggings, the pink skirt and a black elastic undershirt which was annoying as hell.

Everyone in the room starting laughing, including his daughter. It looked like she'll die in laughter, her face was all red. It was so embarrassing. "Okay, class! Let's began! Every girl will stand on the right of her parent, we'll do a quick warm-up."

The quick warm up was an hour and a half long exercise. Jim almost couldn't breathe, cursing the cigarettes and his awful physical condition in his mind. They did jumping, twirling and he didn't know what, but he was drained as hell. But his little daughter seemed to have an energy for both of them. They had a fifteen minutes long break.

Hopper almost collapsed onto the bench, trying to breathe. El sat next to him and took a bottle of water outta her pink backpack. At first, she drank a little, then she handed it to Hop. He greeted the bottle as a goddess, gulping the water quickly. His daughter looked at him and smiled. "It is great, isn't it?"

"Yeah... great," he whispered but grinned at her, mostly in pain. He thought he stretched his tendon. With a chuckle, Dani called the girls back, thank god that they didn't need parents anymore. After a while, a group of mothers came to him, chatting loudly.

"Hi!" one of them said and sat next to him. He was immediately surrounded by the mothers. "Hey." he breathed, taking another sip of the water. "You have to be Jim Hopper. It's great that fathers are joining the activities same as mothers! We think you've done great, really. Oh, my name's Iris."

He nodded. "I would have never come here if I knew I have to exercise too."

"It's sweet!" Iris said, smiling. They saw El coming towards them again. He raised an eyebrow as she came to them. "What is it, sweetheart?" Hopper asked El. She grinned, taking her hairband off his right wrist. "I forgot my hair tie."

"Okay."

The mothers immediately awed. When they were alone again, Hopper sighed. But one of the mothers smiled, almost flirtatious. "Are you single, Jim?"

"Um..." he sighed, looking at El who was jumping along with the others. "I'm a single father, yeah. But... it's complicated."

"Between you and El's mom?" Iris asked. Hopper shook his head. "No, no. But I guess she sees Joyce as her mom-"

"Aww."

How could he just sit here, in a damn stupid skirt and leggings, gossiping with other women? He shook his head and stood up. "I'm going to change in normal clothes if you excuse me."

The truth was that he couldn't take it off. From that moment, he started hating everything made of elastics. With ripped leggings, he quickly pulled them off his hairy legs and put his normal trousers again. He couldn't forget throwing the skirt and undershirt on the other side of the room, full of hate. When he was finally in his normal clothes again, he waited outside for El, smoking a cigarette he needed for a long time.

His daughter exited the building with a big smile on her face and jumped into the car, grinning at him. "You were so cool!" she exclaimed and hugged him. Jim raised his eyebrows. "I was?"

"Yes! And you looked so hilarious in the skirt! I love you!" El screamed in his face.

"I love you too."

That evening Joyce sat on Hopper's couch, they both talking quietly while El was asleep in her room. Joyce, after a hysteric laughter she couldn't control, agreed she would take the lessons along with El. And Jim, with a grateful smile on his face, kissed her gently. This was a start of El's new hobby and their real relationship.


End file.
